Mindfulness.

[Spiced]

i thought about posting it in the tavern, but it's kinda spirituaal related, so maybe it fits in here, please correct me if i'm wrong.

Anyone heard about Mindfulness yet?
It changed my life!

Saturday was my last session of a 8 week long therapy, pretty expensive, 330 euros for 8 lessons of 3.5 hour, but all by all pretty much worthed.

It's an ancient 2500 year old practice wich combines a lot of things, like Yoga, Meditation, Buddhism, psychology and probably lots more.

The life saying of Mindfulness is;

"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, Today is a Gift, Thats why it's called Present".

The meaning of it all is to live in the NOW, not in the past, and not in the future, and that's very hard, for me it is at least.

They teach you how to reduce stress and live in the now, it takes practice, probably life long practice.

A lot of meditaion is the main source of stress reduction, combined with breathing exercices the purpose is not to think about anything, ofcoarse the mind does nothing else but thinking all the time, so when i meditate all kind of thoughts come by, but those should just pass.

It also helps with pain,(phisic and mental) it's all about acceptation, from the moment you accept your pain it will get less intense, we all are constantly fighting our emotions, when we need to do things we tend to resit, although we really need to do them, so it's better to just accept the things the way they are, instead of trying to change them, not in a passive way, but conscious, this way we can deal with them much easier i noticed.

It helped me a lot, and most of all the meditaion helped me, when i forget to do my meditaion practice for a few days i really feel the difference, i'm more moody and more aggitated then when i did them.

I thought i should make you people aware of this practice, maybe Mindfulness will cross your path one day and makes you a different person, and live in the now instead of worrying about lot's of things.

It sure made me much more patient, and without worrying my life is way easier, this was mostly the cause of my bad mood, worries.


Yes, it kinda looks like an advertising when i re-read it.

 

[damiana]

the purpose is not to think about anything, ofcoarse the mind does nothing else but thinking all the time, so when i meditate all kind of thoughts come by, but those should just pass.

I have studied mindfulness meditation very much the past three years. I have meditated for six years. It is very important that we speak correctly about this. I wouldn't say that the purpose is to not-think. Mindfulness meditation (MM) is the act of becoming more aware of the present moment now, which is filled with thoughts and dreams and desires and fears etc. When one becomes aware of thoughts, actually aware of a his or her thoughts, well you'd be amazed to see what happens. Naturally they disappear. So in a way, mindfulness meditation produces non-thinking, but only when done correctly. When one first starts MM often more thoughts will arise, because they have now allowed for what 'is' to 'be.' All of the suppressed thoughts now arise, but when one stays with awareness, these thoughts pass. When one sits for many years they begin to notice the non-passing awareness that is consistent throughout thinking. This state of awareness isn't necessarily without thought, but often is. For example, I can think and be aware of my thoughts as existing in the present moment. I can think and be aware of the non-thinking awareness that is aware of my thinking. I can be aware of the space in my thoughts, I can be aware of thoughts because of my pure awareness, which is thoughtless. It sounds confusing, but with a little effort, it is easy to understand.

Acceptance is the key. Accept now, be aware, and realize!

How to know your true self? First realize why you forgot your real self!

1. Without a doubt, your awareness/perception is clogged with dreams. You are dreaming or putting meaning and symbols, which are not real, to your awareness/perceptions.

2. The whole world as you know it comes through your awareness/perceptions.

3. Your awareness/perceptions distort reality, thus reality is an illusion as you know it. Though reality as it is(not distorted), is of course real. DUH.

4. When the mind is silent, like a calm lake, it reflects reality perfectly. When it is clogged with desires and dreams, fears, etc. it will twist reality into an illusion. As the expression goes, you see what you want. Or stated this way: your mind in it's true state is that of a perfectly clean mirror, over time(many lives or years) that mirror collects dust. That dust distorts the images reflected in the mirror, and until it is clean, it will not reflect reality.

5. When one sits in mindfulness meditation, he or she becomes aware of the present moment now, he or she will eventually calm the mind, calm the lake, clean the mirror, see the real reality, and see their true self.

When one sees these five truths, they decide to clean their mirror. One technique I will highly recommend is MM.

Sit in a comfortable position, with an erect spine. Breath, and accept whatever is in the sphere of your awareness, that is all. Breath, be aware of the breath, if thoughts arise, be aware of the thoughts. If feelings arise, physical or mental, accept them. In order to accept something one must first become aware of it, so become aware of these feelings and accept. Acceptance is like shining a light in a dark room. It destroys all illusions, if you accept anything that is not real, it will disappear. But with acceptance, awareness is needed.

 

[transitory]

damiana- thanks for the explanation. This makes a lot of sense. It's odd that our western education still teaches us nothing about the fundamentals of being such as our awareness itself. It's little wonder that we so easily fall prey to the manipulation of fear & greed by advertising, govt propaganda etc.

Spiced makes reference to the acceptance of physical pain. I have found this to be true. In dealing with any physical discomfort one must first fully acknowledge it. Even going to the extent of verbally saying "yes- I know you are there, I am aware of this disturbance and I acknowledge you" can help in accepting pain. If we don't accept it then it will continue in attempting to influence our consciousness from the shadows, attempting to make itself heard.

I am already inclined to view thought as distinct from insight. Thought being all of the things which we think we know. The ego being formed of and operating upon thought. Insight, I think, is clear sightedness. The moment to moment awareness of the movement of thought, the ways of the ego.

When one sits in mindfulness meditation, he or she becomes aware of the present moment now, he or she will eventually calm the mind, calm the lake, clean the mirror, see the real reality, and see their true self.

Yes! And all of this happens without effort. Effort being the attempt to make the situation conform to the idea or the idea to the situation. It would seem that any psychological problem may be solved through mindfulness. If there is a clear and true reflection of the cliff then naturally one will not step off the precipice. No effort, choice, confusion need be involved.

Perhaps most of us have been trying to solve our problems by making our ideas conform to the world and the world conform to our ideas. Rather than being any kind of a solution this could perhaps be the origin of problems. If only we could become still and aware of what we see in ourselves without trying to change it according to further ideas...

I've been wondering about this line of thought for some years but have never put it into practice.

Yes this mindfulness meditation seems worth practising- I'm gonna try this.

Thank you

 

[Spiced]

Thanks for your eleboration Damiana, wow 6 years of meditation huh?
I'm sure you are a changed man in comparison to 6 years ago, i'm already feeling the effects of meditaion on my psyche now, and i'm only doing it for 10 weeks, lately i try to meditate every day, and my mood is significantly better then in days i don't meditate, mindfulness helped me a lot.

The only thing i still find pretty hard to accept when i meditate is itch, when i feel the need to scratch it's still pretty distracting, it goes away eventually, but when i do scratch immediatly after that theres an itch at a different spot, and so on, if i just accept it, it fades away, it will take lot's of practice, but i'm on my way.



Hey Transistory, you seem to understand very well how the flow of Mindfulness goes too, it's like you said, don't try to change everything, accept it as it is, and life will be easier.

It's great that you want to try it, i'm sure it will help you a lot if you have the patience and the discipline to practice and learn about it.
Good luck!

 

[damiana]

damiana- thanks for the explanation. This makes a lot of sense. It's odd that our western education still teaches us nothing about the fundamentals of being such as our awareness itself. It's little wonder that we so easily fall prey to the manipulation of fear & greed by advertising, govt propaganda etc.

Agreed. I always thought that myself going to high school. "Why aren't they teaching us how to be and look inside?" Now I know, nobody really knows how!

Spiced makes reference to the acceptance of physical pain. I have found this to be true. In dealing with any physical discomfort one must first fully acknowledge it. Even going to the extent of verbally saying "yes- I know you are there, I am aware of this disturbance and I acknowledge you" can help in accepting pain. If we don't accept it then it will continue in attempting to influence our consciousness from the shadows, attempting to make itself heard.

Agreed.

I am already inclined to view thought as distinct from insight. Thought being all of the things which we think we know. The ego being formed of and operating upon thought. Insight, I think, is clear sightedness. The moment to moment awareness of the movement of thought, the ways of the ego.

Yes! And all of this happens without effort. Effort being the attempt to make the situation conform to the idea or the idea to the situation. It would seem that any psychological problem may be solved through mindfulness. If there is a clear and true reflection of the cliff then naturally one will not step off the precipice. No effort, choice, confusion need be involved.

Perhaps most of us have been trying to solve our problems by making our ideas conform to the world and the world conform to our ideas. Rather than being any kind of a solution this could perhaps be the origin of problems. If only we could become still and aware of what we see in ourselves without trying to change it according to further ideas...

WOW, couldn't have said it better myself. :d

I've been wondering about this line of thought for some years but have never put it into practice.

Yes this mindfulness meditation seems worth practising- I'm gonna try this.

Thank you

You put this into words very well, thank you for that.

Thanks for your eleboration Damiana, wow 6 years of meditation huh?
I'm sure you are a changed man in comparison to 6 years ago, i'm already feeling the effects of meditaion on my psyche now, and i'm only doing it for 10 weeks, lately i try to meditate every day, and my mood is significantly better then in days i don't meditate, mindfulness helped me a lot.

Yeah six years, doesn't seem that long. Ask me when I'm 80, that will have been 65 years of weekly and daily meditation practice, hahaha, that will be cool to say. I've changed a whole bunch no doubt about that, plus I'm healthy and I can concentrate extremely efficiently and I am happy.

The only thing i still find pretty hard to accept when i meditate is itch, when i feel the need to scratch it's still pretty distracting, it goes away eventually, but when i do scratch immediatly after that theres an itch at a different spot, and so on, if i just accept it, it fades away, it will take lot's of practice, but i'm on my way.

Hahahaha, oh yes, you are definitely on your way. I've been there, keep up the good work, you'll thank yourself later. I know I have.

 

[Dimitrius]